My sudden physical "patch" didn't go unnoticed. In a village as paranoid and resource-starved as Suna, a kid going from "death's door" to "standard Genin" in a year is a major anomaly. But Granny Chiyo didn't grill me for secrets. She was a veteran; she knew that in the ninja world, everyone had a "black box" project they didn't talk about. Instead, she decided it was time to stop giving me the lite version of the manual and start giving me the full administrative access.
She summoned me to her study one afternoon. The room smelled like dried herbs and old parchment. She didn't waste time with small talk. She just laid out four distinctly different scrolls on the table.
"Sayo," she said, her voice carrying that "Village Elder" weight that makes you want to stand at attention. "You've passed the threshold. You aren't a sick kid anymore. You're a resource. And a resource is only useful if it's properly refined. From today on, your free time belongs to me."
She didn't use the word "apprentice," but the subtext was written in 4K. I bowed my head. "I'm ready, Granny."
The training regimen she dropped on me was insane. It was like taking a full-time university course load while working a 9-to-5 at the factory.
1. Material and Fluid Dynamics (Nature Transformation): Chiyo stopped teaching me "Jutsus" and started teaching me "Physics." For Earth Release, she had me focus on density. I'd sit for hours in front of a pile of sand, trying to use my chakra to change its "plasticity" making it as hard as steel one second and as fluid as water the next. For Wind Release, it was all about frequency. She had me cutting leaves and creating ripples on water using nothing but directed air pressure. I learned how to make a breeze feel like a blunt instrument or a surgical blade. My microscopic control meant I could "tune" my chakra to the exact vibration needed for a clean cut.
2. Biometric Data and System Architecture (Medical Ninjutsu): This was my favorite part. Chiyo opened up her personal research notes on the human meridian system. I wasn't just learning how to heal scratches anymore; I was learning the "wiring diagram" of the human body. I studied acupoints, cell-regeneration cycles, and chakra-pathway resistance. This was exactly what I needed for the Body Tempering Furnace. I stopped seeing the human body as a mystery and started seeing it as a biological machine that could be optimized.
3. Advanced Coding (Sealing and Runes): Bunpuku stepped up his game, too. He started teaching me the logic behind complex barriers and energy-binding arrays. It was like learning a new, higher-level programming language. Shukaku provided the "live commentary," usually screaming about how a certain seal was "stupid" or "too easy to break," which actually helped me identify the security vulnerabilities in the code. I was learning how to build energy containers that wouldn't leak vital for the next generation of my Puppet Core.
4. Interface and Control (Advanced Puppetry): This was Chiyo's specialty. She started teaching me "Multi-threading" how to control multiple chakra threads simultaneously to perform different tasks. I learned how to weave elemental chakra into the puppet's hardware, turning a wooden arm into a flamethrower or a lightning rod. I watched her repair high-level combat frames, memorizing every gear-ratio and energy-bypass she used.
I was a sponge. A very tired, very caffeinated sponge.
During the day, I was the factory's star apprentice. Every lunch break was spent deducing fluid dynamics or memorizing rune structures. At night, after the furnace session, I'd stay up by the oil lamp studying medical schematics until my eyes burned.
Was I exhausted? Absolutely. My "system" was running at 99% CPU usage twenty-four hours a day. But I loved it. I could feel myself getting stronger at a terrifying speed. I wasn't just gaining "levels"; I was rebuilding my entire architecture.
Chiyo watched me inhale information that usually took decades to master, and I could tell she was starting to see me as more than just a talented kid. She was looking at me like I was Suna's "Secret Weapon."
I knew the path she'd laid out was grueling, but I didn't care. I had a world to catch up to, and for the first time in two lives, I had the hardware to do it.